


Storybook Love

by AintNobodysBitch



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: M/M, Maybe - Freeform, Mpreg?, Story time with the Kirk-McCoys, There's mentions of it so I guess I should tag that, They Have Kids, that's pretty much it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-28
Updated: 2013-10-28
Packaged: 2017-12-30 18:13:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1021824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AintNobodysBitch/pseuds/AintNobodysBitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"We want to hear about the time you died."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Storybook Love

It always starts the same way. “Daddy, we want to hear a story,” they’ll say. Jim will exchange a fond look with his husband before smiling down at their kids. The twins know what’s coming, and in their excitement they’ll climb into the lap of their closest parent and look expectantly at Jim.

“What story do you guys want to hear?” he’ll ask, ruffling the hair of whichever twin climbed into his lap as he waits patiently for an answer to a question that he already knows the answer to.

Except something is different this time. Joanna gives George a look that Bones has dubbed the “George is my permanent scapegoat” look, and George tilts his head back so that his bright blue eyes are meeting Jim’s. “We want to hear about the time you died.” George points at Jim without looking away from Bones, and neither man looks at each other. Neither man _can_ look at each other.

Jim had always made it a point to be very open with their kids. They both knew that Jim had done been in a bad place before they were born. They knew they’d never get to see any of their grandparents

_“Jim, they’re five years old. You can’t just tell them that-”_

_“That what? Their grandparents are dead? That my parents are as good as dead?”_

_“Yeah.” Bones deflates a little at this, and Jim sees his chance and takes it, crossing the room and putting his hands on Bones’s shoulders._

_He waits until Bones has relaxed into his touch, his head resting against Jim’s shoulder, to continue. “I’m not saying we tell them what my mom and my stepdad did and_ why _they’ll never see them. At least, not right now.” He can tell Bones is getting ready to argue, so he rushes ahead. “I’m just saying we tell them that their other grandparents are- are dead.” He fumbles over that word, allowing Bones to pull him into a rib-crushing hug. “They deserve to know that much.”_

_“Okay, Jim.” Bones turns his head to press a kiss to Jim’s cheek. “Okay.”_

and they’d known that Jim had done some bad things when he was younger. George’s favorite way of saying hello had been “my daddy was in jail!” for a few months. Uhura thought it was cute. The foreign dignitaries that Jim had been meeting with did not.

But Jim hadn’t told them that he died, and the silence from the other side of the room told him that Bones hadn’t told them either. _Fuck._ “I don’t know about that, guys, maybe we should-”

“It’s fine.” Bones’s voice was quiet, and Jim turned to look at him in shock. Bones was looking down at Joanna, her tiny hands resting on his bigger ones. His jaw was clenched, as he continued, but his voice never wavered. “I think they should hear the story, Jim.”

“Okay,” Jim nodded, mirroring Bones’s actions and putting George’s tiny hands in his. “Okay, I’ll tell you the story of when your father brought me back to life.”

He paused to collect his thoughts, absentmindedly playing with George’s hands. Bones was playing with Joanna’s, and for a brief second Jim wished that George hadn’t asked about it. He and Bones had made it a point not to talk about what had happened, Jim wasn’t exactly sure they _could_ talk about what had happened. What a great fucking time to find out.

“Seven years ago, I did a very stupid thing.” Jim’s voice broke all of the Kirk-McCoys out of their particular reveries, and they all turned to Jim with wide eyes. “I broke one of Starfleet’s major rules to save a planet, and Mr. Spock-”

“The pointy-eared bastard!” George cut in gleefully, and Bones snorted from across the room. Jim was really going to have to sit down with his son one day and explain that just because he heard them saying something he couldn’t run around saying it. Bones still hadn’t gotten over the time that George had looked up at Uhura with his wide, innocent eyes (smaller but almost exactly identical to Jim’s) and asked what getting fucked into the mattress meant because “I heard daddy saying it in the middle of the night and then I heard funny noises coming from their room, is that a bad thing Miss Uhura?”

“Language,” Jim warned mildly, ruffling George’s hair before settling back into the rhythm of the story. “I broke a rule to save a planet, and the pointy-eared bastard turned me in to Starfleet. I got into trouble for what I did, and they took the Enterprise away from me.” Jim’s hands started to tremble, and he moved them away from George. His son didn’t need to know just how badly what he was saying was bothering him. “Of course, Bones had found out he was pregnant with you two, and he didn’t get a chance to tell me.” Jim made his tone flippant, as if the knowledge that he had almost died and left Bones alone to raise their two children didn’t still haunt his nightmares. “So you guys were technically there for all of this.”

_PADD MESSAGES_

_[KIRK, JAMES T.: I’m sorry, Bones. I disappointed you too.]_

_[McCOY, LEONARD H.: What the hell are you talking about, Jim? You haven’t done anything to disappoint me.]_

_[McCOY, LEONARD H.: I’ve actually got something to tell you. What time will you be home?]_

_[KIRK, JAMES T.: Command took the Enterprise. In a meeting. Call you when I’m out.]_

_Bones had spent the next thirty minutes pacing back and forth. He was pregnant. He and Jim were going to have kids. Jim had just lost the one thing that was almost as important to him as Bones was. He didn’t know what to do, other than stay at home and wait on the phone call from Jim. After thirty minutes of pacing, he had it planned out. He was going to tell Jim that he was sorry about the Enterprise, and he’d do everything within his power to help Jim get it back.. And then he’d say that they were going to be fathers._

_When the call from Jim finally came through, Bones convinced himself he was ready for anything. “Jim, darlin’, we need-”_

_“Pike is dead.”_

_Bones had gone to work that night, helping out with the destruction Harrison had left in his wake. He was the one who did the autopsy on Christopher Pike, and was Leonard Horatio Kirk-McCoy’s signature that was on his death certificate. When Bones finally dragged Jim back to their rooms, Jim drank everything he could get his hands on. He cried and screamed and held on to Bones like Bones was the only thing that was real anymore, and he drank.. He didn’t notice that Bones drank grape juice._

“We were there when you died?!” Joanna spoke up for the first time, sounding completely and totally overjoyed, and for the first time in seven years, Jim faked a smile for his daughter.

“Yeah. You guys were there when I died.” Jim stayed quiet for a minute, wishing that Bones was beside him, that he could reach out for Bones’s hand and squeeze it when parts of the story got too rough. Bones must have been thinking the same thing, because he murmured something to Joanna about moving couches so she could be by her brother. It wasn’t long after he felt more than saw Bones come sit down beside him that Jim’s hand was in Bones’s, neither one sure who made the first move, both too happy for the contact to question it. “Where was I?”

“Daddy was pregnant with us.” Joanna supplied helpfully from Bones’s lap.

“That’s right,” Jim gave their daughter a small smile. “Good job, sweetheart.” He looked away from her, his eyes focusing instead on the wall across from him. “Captain Pike, a very nice man who helped me meet your father, and who we named you after,” he tapped George lightly on the head, “was put in charge of the Enterprise, and he wanted me back on board.” Bones’s grip on Jim’s hand tightened, and Jim closed his eyes against the emotions that were still too close to the surface, even after seven years. “I was in a meeting with some very important people when a bad man came and tried to kill us all. Several people died that day, but Mr. Spock and I were lucky enough to make it out. Captain Pike didn’t.”

Bones’s grip on his hand got even tighter, and Jim allowed himself to sag into Bones’s side. “I was very upset with the bad man who killed my friend, so an admiral told me what I could do to get the bad man back.”

_“Jim, this is fucking crazy.”_

_“Bones, I_ have _to do this.”_

 _“You don’t have to! Jim, this isn’t_ you. _This is_ not _the man I married.”_

_“He killed Pike, Bones.” Jim’s entire posture changed, his body sagging against the wall, and Bones hated how young it made him look. Jim wasn’t even thirty yet, for fuck’s sake. “He killed the man who was going to be godfather to our kids, when we have them.” Bones had bitten his tongue so hard that blood began to fill his mouth, but he kept quiet. “What do you want me to do?”_

_“I want you to do the right thing.” When Jim opened his mouth to continue the fight, Bones silenced him with a kiss. “But I’ll be behind you whatever you decide to do. I promised you I’d be there, Jim. I’ll always keep that promise.”_

_There was so much Jim wanted to say, so many things he needed to say. The only thing he managed to get out was a choked, “I love you.”_

“We eventually caught the bad man and put him in the jail on the Enterprise. He told us some bad things about the admiral, and we got caught in a very bad place with no power.” Jim was about to condense the hell out of this story. “The admiral turned out to be a bad man too, and I needed the other bad man’s help to fix the ship. Both men wanted us all to die, but I couldn’t let that happen. Not to your dad.” Bones’s hand tightened around his again, and Jim closed his eyes. “I was beat up by the bad man who killed Captain Pike, and the Enterprise was hurt pretty bad by the bad admiral. Mr. Scott and I- after being saved by Chekov, which was actually pretty cool- made it to the Warp Core, where we found the problem.”

“Going into the Warp Core meant that I was going to get very sick and die, but not going into the Warp Core meant that the Enterprise was going crash and everyone would die. I didn’t want that to happen, so I went in there and I fixed the problem.”

_It hurt. Everything hurt. Keeping his eyes open hurt, how the hell was he supposed to keep a hold on the bar and kick the core back into place? Except he knew how. Anytime he felt like he was going to quit, he thought about Bones. Bones with his fear of flying who was still on the damn spaceship. Bones with his bed head and pronounced drawl and crow’s feet that only Jim was privy to. Bones with his deep moans and soft skin and perfect body. Bones who had Jim’s ring on his left finger, a permanent reminder of Jim’s love and promise to keep him safe._

_Jim had promised him at least a thousand times that he wouldn’t let anything happen to him in space._

_And Jim Kirk-McCoy always kept his promises._

Jim stayed quiet for a minute, trying to remember what exactly had happened before he’d died. The memories were all really fuzzy, and he’d spent the better part of seven years trying to forget them. “I made it back to the decontamination chamber, but it was too late for anyone to do anything. I died not long after the Enterprise was saved.” This time it was Jim’s hand that tightened around Bones’s. “Your father worked for days to make sure that I wouldn’t stay dead. He was there beside me when I took my first breath, and he was there when I woke up, two weeks later.”

 _“Kid, I don’t know if you can hear me or not, but I need you._ We _need you.” Bones’s voice had cracked. “It’s not just us anymore, darlin’. I’m pregnant- twins, if the scanner is right. We finally did it. And now you’re-”Bones’s hand curled around Jim’s. “Why do you always have to be the damned hero, Jim? You’ve got kids on the way, and I didn’t even get the chance to tell you because you were so damn busy trying to get back at the man who murdered Pike.” Bones paused. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Jim, I’m so, so sorry. But I’m scared. I can’t do this on my own. I need you here, Jim. They’re going to need you here.”_

_Bones was crying now, his hands still curled around Jim’s. “Just wake up, okay? Wake up soon. I can’t stand sleeping without you. I close my eyes, Jim, and the only thing I can see is your face when I opened the body bag. Spock didn’t even tell me you were dead, Jim. No one did. I got to open the bag and see for myself.” Bones was crying harder. “I’ve never hurt like that before, Jim. Ever.” Bones got quiet, the monitors that were plugged into Jim making the only other sound in the room. “I guess what I’m trying to say is you need to wake up soon. I miss you.” Bones gave a half-hearted chuckle. “I miss you so much I started watching that damn movie you used to make me watch in the Academy. The one with Westley and Buttercup.”Bones sighed, closing his eyes. “I love you, Jim. Why’d you have to die?”_

_Jim’s hand had curled around Bones’s, freezing him in place. “Death can’t stop true love,” Jim’s voice was raspy, and his eyes weren’t open, but dammit he was talking. “All it can do is delay it for a while.”_

_“You cheesy bastard.” Bones was crying again, his tears mingling with Jim’s as he leaned down to kiss him, the joy he was feeling at finding his husband awake leaving him_ _weak, like he was going to collapse onto the bed with Jim._

_“But I’m your cheesy bastard.” Was he really- Bones pulled back, and yeah, Jim was actually smiling. “Thank you, Bones. For saving me. I could- I could hear everything while I was out. So… so thank you.” Jim’s smile faltered, but quickly returned full force. “Now come on, Bones. We’re going to be dads soon. We need to celebrate.”_

George and Joanna had listened with rapt attention, and it wasn’t long before they were flinging questions at him.

“Did dying hurt?”

“What was it like?”

“Did you kill the bad men?”

“Why were those men so mean to you?”

“Daddy are you crying?”

“Did you cry when he died?”

“Is the Warp Core ever going to mess up again?”

“If it does are you gonna’ save everyone again?”

“Where was the pointy-eared bastard?”

“Did anybody else see you-”

“Okay guys,” Bones cut in, and Jim was the only one who noticed the slight tremor in his husband’s voice. “That’s enough questions for tonight. We’re going to tuck you in, and if you can remember all of these questions tomorrow I’m sure Jim would love to answer them.” He smiled down at their kids, but Jim knew it wasn’t genuine. “Now come on. Into bed.”

 

Later, long after the twins had been put to bed, when their room smelled of sex and sweat and Jim was lying with Bones’s head on  his chest, his hands absentmindedly running through Bones’s hair, Jim looked down at Bones with a small smile. “We’re never going to talk about that story again, okay?” Bones looked sleepily up at Jim, unable to stop the smile that formed in response to Jim’s. “I don’t want to hear about you dying anymore.”

“Agreed,” Jim nodded, leaning down to kiss Bones’s smile. He waited until Bones was almost asleep to say “Thank you, Bones. For saving me.”

“Shut up and go to sleep.” Bones didn’t so much as crack an eye when Jim spoke, and despite his laughter Jim was asleep less than two minutes later. Bones waited until Jim’s snores were vibrating his entire body to curl even closer to his husband. “I’ll always save you, darlin’. Always.”

 

 

 


End file.
